


going out with a boom

by BetweenSheetsAndRaindrops



Series: Cloying Lies, Fatal Truths [2]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, M/M, Murder, Strong Language, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 18:16:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11385702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BetweenSheetsAndRaindrops/pseuds/BetweenSheetsAndRaindrops





	going out with a boom

"Honestly, I thought we'd get something by now." Yvette called out as she took a sip of coffee. Rhys could really use a cup or five, but his paranoia was keeping him on his toes just fine.

 

"Yeah, well Vaughn's contact fell through; we didn't plan for him to get murdered before he could insert the code into the server." Through the last two months Vaughn and Rhys were trying to get information on the vault. Their employer had wanted solid information, no matter the cost. They were running out of time and Vaughn had suggested they used a contact he had. Rhys didn't exactly love the idea but they were becoming a bit desperate. Two months was too much, they weren't supposed to stay this long but finding out new obstacles and a certain someone emerging. And well, that certain someone making it very difficult for him and after earlier that morning, they had to act now.

 

Vaughn snorted. "Yes let me tell my next contact  _'I hope you don't mind but I need you to do this now before you get murder by low level employees who are trying to climb the ladder'_." Rhys shook his head as he continued to hack into the server of Helios. 

 

Yvette snickered. "Sounds like a great party trick, I bet you'd make good cash as a fortune teller."

 

"You think? I was going more for an oracle."

 

The tall woman looked at Vaughn curiously through the echocall. "Oracle?... isn't that a bit much?"

 

"Nah, they'll die with my readings because they'll want to avoid them. I'm totally an oracle."

 

She laughed at his statement. "You'd look pretty good in rags, wouldn't he Rhys?"

 

"Don't bother with him, he only has eyes for one. I feel so cheated Vette, my bro has cheated on me with another." He wipes the imaginary tear from under his eye and sniffs.

 

She looks at Vaughn solemnly and nods her head. "You want me to start looking for another group for you? Or will we be able to still working together? I don't particularly like the sound of starting with other people."

 

"Too much effort?" The short man asks.

 

"That and the fact that they won't cook as good as Rhys does."

 

Vaughn nods, his bro was a pretty great cook. He remembered a couple years back when they had a base in Eden-5 and it had been their anniversary. They had all been together for 12 years. Rhys had made a three course meal for the three of them. The dessert fell through though. He remembers Rhys had spent hours making it only to be confronted with the fact that it had no taste and it was burnt. He remembered clearly that Yvette almost choked on it too. Not only because it was awful but because she couldn't fathom how someone that could go all out on dinner could obliterate something so simple as creme brulee. 

 

"Well as long as he doesn't try to make us dessert again." At that, Yvette laughed so hard that she was coughing, trying not to choke on her coffee.

 

"Har-  _har._  You two are  _hilarious._ " Rhys said over Yvette's laughs. A light ping sound shook them from their light mood and into business. "I... I'm in. Yvette, your connection ready?"

 

"I'm go."

 

"Vaughn, get ready to pass all these files through to Vette." Rhys told the other man who responded with a short nod as he took his seat.

 

"Timer." He heard confirmation of both of his partners when a light tone went off beside him and on the other line of the echocall. 

 

Rhys was now on his own, running against time. This was going to be a hell of a ride. Vaughn's contact hadn't put in the code he needed for infiltration. Apparently, someone killed him because they thought he was a manager or something. Mistaking him for the wrong guy to kill, in order to gain wealth and power. The contact was now gone due to a bullet in the head. Rhys had triple checked that the guy hadn't left connections to them in any way. Any weird look their way and all would fall apart. So with their dead pawn, this meant that there would be a higher risk of being seen as a threat in the system. He'd been opposed to this idea but they needed to go now. They knew that taking this job was basically a suicide mission but they needed this in order to find the girls. It was a high price to pay but they needed to do this. They needed to. He needed to. 

 

Finally, Rhys found his way into the connection to the computer he needed. No one would think that R&D actually had massive official paperwork on the vault. Some would go hack into the VP but they knew that all the paperwork came from the worker bees. The ones that were loyal and more than anything out of their fucking minds. He had learned as such, also since many workers kept dying on the same floor. Who wouldn't notice honestly. And if he wasn't mistaking, they would have encrypted files on everything with their discoveries. "Hello there beautiful." He said with a smile.

 

"Yvette, package coming in hot." Vaughn told her.

 

It had been over nine minutes and it had been a smooth transfer. _So far so good..._ Rhys thought. It was then that an alarm went off. 

 

"You didn't." Vaughn accused with a I'm-so-done glare.

 

"Whaat! I did noth-"

 

"Ohmy— You did!"

 

"Rhys seriously?? Couldn't you have waited." The dark woman stated.

 

"What the hell are you two on about!? 

 

Vaughn grunted "Uuuughh, bro you totally jinxed it! We almost had it! Now look, alarms are going off."

 

"How much more is left?" Yvette asked

 

"Uuhh... 10%. So, 17 minutes tops." 

 

"We backed up a decoy yes?"

 

"Decoy is go." Vaughn confirmed her.

 

"Once the decoy is found you two won't have enough time to split." Both men looked at her, the video call becoming a bit static with interference. That was the first sign that this was catching up to them. "We don't have enough time" she said as if she had read Rhys's mind. "You two need to go  **now**." 

 

Vaughn was about to protest when Rhys pulled out his mechanical hand and made some sort of override. "This will buy you time Yvette, you remember the purple color file I have?" He saw her nod briefly, "It'll get you to blow the connection. Literally. Run it through your end, on my mark you blow it. If our call doesn't go through, blow it in 10." Vaughn watched Yvette's face scatter as Rhys hung up.

 

Both cleared the computer each had used and cleaned what little equipment they had brought to the lower tech office; two echo devices, a white USB, and the connection cable. They walked out the offices to the main hall passing various people. They then cut themselves from the crowd, who were being evacuated to the Hall of Heroism, to the stairs towards the travel station.

 

"MY WORKER BEES," a loud voice made itself known through the speakers, "seems like **someone** has been putting their noses where they don't belong!" Shit, it's been 6 minutes. This was gonna get ugly.

 

Through the reflection of the glass in the wall, Vaughn could see that gunned men had made their way and now surrounded the whole mass of workers that were gathering. Another group started to jog down, he guessed they were headed towards where their decoy was.

 

"You got the CB?" Rhys asked his friend. Vaughn then took out what looked like a silver pen and clicked the small button on the side. This was actually a blocker. Yvette had baptized it the Cock Block ever since the incident in Eden-7. She was still bitter about not having her fun, Rhys couldn't blame her. They could of used the pictures for blackmail, since the dude was cheating on his wife. It could of been a good backup just in case.

 

"I don't understand! I give you EVERYTHING. I bust my BUTT for this company. YOU bust your butt for it, WE ALL DO! We all want greatness, don't you? We do don't we? So  _why_ do we **backstab Handsome Jack!?** " The voice had echoed and then there was absolute silence. Rhys could almost make out a muffled sob. Of course someone would cry,  _rest in peace you moron,_ Rhys thought. "Ugh, someone shut her up." And with that a shot was heard. "Now, where were we? Ah yes, BACKSTABBING ME!"

 

At this point Rhys was already half way into overriding the travel station. If Vaughn's calculations were correct, Rhys would have up to 15 minutes to override if they did go for the decoy first. But, that was a calculation that involved the murdered contact. Now Rhys had less than that. 

 

"Fuck," Vaughn murmured as he was trying to get to Yvette but failing to connect.

 

"—o WHO the has it, huh? M'kay, playing toughie I see." Then there were shots fired and screams were heard. "See, now we're playing good cop bad cop. I'm the good cop and the gunners are the bad cops. I'll give you mercy if by killing you with this turret; a clean shot here displayed by exhibit Asshat, Butt ugly, and Coward. The gunners won't be so nice."

 

Then there was a distant boom.

 

"What th—"

 

Main lights went off replacing them with red. 

 

 **WARNING. FIRE DETECTED. SECTORS 7**  
**AND 11 LOST. SECTORS 24 AND 37 ARE**  
**TO EVACUATE.**

 

Said the female computer voice.

 

Then a series of blasts went off, Yvette's doing no less. The only reason Rhys knew was because he felt the floor vibrate. But...

 

** WARNING. FIRE DETECTED IN SECTION **  
** 63, 59, 53 AND 52. PLEASE EVACUATE **

 

...well damn. Yvette gave them more time now. She had shut parts of R&D as well as the manufacture center. This means that the line of loader bots that were made on the west wing were now fucked. If the wing wasn't contained then some of them would blow, causing more damage to the station.

 

"GET IT CONTAINED," Jack shouted off to the side of the mic. "You lot. No one moves a muscle."

 

Rhys could hear heavy jogging in unison. _Yvette, you genius you._  He could hear them move most likely toward the sectors that were at risk.

 

Almost...

 

"Rhys" Vaughn's voice was tight.

 

Almost there. 

 

Vaughn could hear the heavy boots of, highly probable, gunned men.

 

Fuck, almost. Almost.

 

"You lot check over there!"

 

" _RHYS"_ the shorter man whispered harshly.

 

 _Finally!_ Rhys then punched in the coordinates and both men were transported to their location. After landing Rhys quickly erased their departure and entry with his mechanical hand. At least they had a clean exit.

 

Vaughn was bent forwards in a squat position, his hands resting on his knees. "Fuck, that was too close."

 

"Don't worry, next time I'll be sure to get us on escape pods." 

 

"No. Hell. No. Not after the Torgue thing." Rhys laughed at Vaughn's bitterness over that job. They had to head to Elpis and blow some home or something for Mr. Torgue. Some sort of payback for some grudge? Eeh, pretty irrelevant, but they were around the neighborhood so they took it. Plus, extra cash was never bad. The escape was tricky. Rhys and Vaughn had to separate from Yvette. All their back ups were pretty much destroyed, which meant improv. They had to bolt, like now. So Rhys had the amazing idea of launching escape pods via rocket in order to land on Pandora. What type of logic was that even?! Vaughn never knew but he didn't want to die there so he took his chances. By some sort of miracle, both had made it to Pandora. Rhys started to hate the desert even more after that. It was almost 8 days later that Yvette finally found them. After that they went to get their cash. Mr. Torgue which wasn't so hyped with the job but at their escape. Apparently, they blew the rail off. That explained the weird noise when they departed. The muscled man loved it so much they got some extra cash.

 

"And here I thought you yearned for death."

 

"I don't  _yearn for death,_ I like the adrenaline rush okay." Vaughn said now stretching.

 

"Tomayto, tomahto."

 

In the distance, Rhys could hear a faint rumble. He put his mechanical hand over this his eyebrows which blocked the hot sunlight. Squinting, he could make out a dust cloud. Ahhh cavalry was coming.

 

Vaughn sighed, "if it isn't her I swear I'll kill the driver. I'm not wondering this desert for days again."

 

"With what? The cable?"

 

Vaughn then eyed his friends mechanical arm. "Bro, no. _No._ Last time you used my arm I had to rip it out of someones scrotum."

 

"Well, what we're we supposed to do? Tell the guy, _'Hey sorry we're casually taking this sack of eridium, just go back to your post my guy. Let us take care of this, we'll be out of your way before you know it'_. Yeah I'll try that next time." The shorter man emphasized with his hands as they both started to walk to the car in the distance.

 

"You could have warned me!"

 

"Yeah, like that would have made a difference."

 

"Fine. Okay, it wouldn't have—"

 

"Thank you."

 

"— still doesn't mean I'll let you do it again. My arm looked disgusting not to mention the stench  _and_ it had bits and pieces of skin and organs that I couldn't get out for weeks."

 

"I did it for us bro." Vaughn replied feeling a bit bad about that. He did remember Rhys having issues cleaning the arm. They couldn't do a job for at least a month or so because of some wiring.

 

Rhys stopped walking and looked at his best friend. "I know."

 

Vaughn smiled, "I'd do it again you know."

 

The taller man laughed, he totally would do it again. "Thank, you bro." He had killed a man that had shot at Rhys.

 

Vaughn remembered the loud noise of the shot. They had gotten in at night to take the eridium. It was supposed to be a quick job, in and out, then eat out at the restaurant Yvette wanted to try before they left. It was a ritual of sorts, getting someones bank account and extracting cash to go on a celebratory dinner. The bigger the target the better, they usually never noticed a couple hundreds missing. Plus, it wasn't like the restaurant workers would remember their faces. It was a difficult night that one. There was so much blood, the guy hit Rhys on the side of his stomach. Vaughn had caught him before he fell over. So much blood. Vaughn swore the huge room felt as small as a prison cell. He could smell the blood, the sweat, and even Rhys's fear. He was gonna lose him, he was gonna lose his best friend. All Vaughn could feel as he held Rhys was rage. He was going to rip the piece of shit apart. _No one,_ would take a hit at his family and think they would walk out alive. He had no weapons, no echo device to call Yvette. So he did the most logical thing he could manage. He took Rhys's arm off and launched himself to his target impaling it to his face. He then stabbed the said metal arm on the guys stomach. No one would think that Vaughn was capable of it. He certainly didn't look like a killer but no one knew him, not like Yvette and Rhys did. He was certainly capable of getting his hands dirty and much more when it came to the ones he loved. Vaughn remembers getting Rhys on the passenger seat, trying to keep pressure on the wound, and a frantic Yvette that kept herself from crying. That was probably the longest night in Vaughn's life.

 

"Any time, bro."

 

"You two done having a moment?! Or you wanna bake in the sun?"

 

"Oh, glorious cavalry!!" Vaughn called out to Yvette as he got in the car.

 

"Well aren't you giddy." She gave Rhys a questioning glance as he got in and shut the door. 

 

"Desert Haze and eridium theft flashbacks."

 

Yvette laughed and put the car drive. "Only you would make this romantic Vaughn."

 

"He is a bit of a mushy-feely boy." Rhys said as he rested his arm, elbow sticking out the window which was down.

 

"I'm literally right here guys."

 

"We know, shorty." Yvette replied with a smirk. 

 


End file.
